CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN PARTICIPATORY URBAN DESIGN: HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE TURKISH CASES

Integrating an effective participation into planning and urban design processes is necessary to democratize planning and design practices. However, integrating participation into these processes presents challenges which are not found in conventional planning and design processes. This article deals with participatory approaches in urban design, revealing the participants, methods, and levels of participation in participatory urban design projects through reviewing case studies. It focuses on identifying the challenges and opportunities in the process, and proposes improvement measures for the effective participatory urban design process. Findings of the study reveal that actors and methods of participation are less diverse in participatory urban design cases in Turkiye. In very few cases, participation continues throughout the urban design process. Innovative, pre -designed and project -specific participation methods are not used, special events that support participation are not included, and participation levels remain low compared to world cases. An important feature of the participatory urban design experience in Turkiye is the incidences of "reactionary participation" that involve objections and interventions against urban projects that exclude participation. The inadequacy of legal frameworks regarding urban design and participation is a significant challenge for the implementation of the participatory approach. For participation to be successful, the urban design process must be designed as an open and flexible system that allows new input and feedback at each stage. In this system, to improve living environments, it is necessary to propose new perspectives in which the user can participate in the design process without losing professional knowledge and design focus.